Elgarten CW, Kairalla JA, Thompson JC, Miller TP, Wang C, Conway S, Loh ML, Raetz EA, Gupta S, Rau RE, Angiolillo A, Rabin KR, Alexander S. SARS-CoV-2 infections in patients enrolled on the Children’s Oncology Group standard-risk B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia trial, AALL1731. EJHaem. 2023 Aug;4(3):745-750. doi: 10.1002/jha2.697. eCollection 2023 Aug. PubMed PMID: 37601850; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10435702.
Study ID Citation
Abstract
Hematologic malignancy is a risk factor for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in adults; however, data specific to children with leukemia are limited. High‐quality infectious adverse event data from the ongoing Children’s Oncology Group (COG) standard‐risk B acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (ALL/LLy) trial, AALL1731, were analyzed to provide a disease‐specific estimate of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection outcomes in pediatric ALL. Of 253 patients with reported infections, the majority (77.1%) were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic (CTCAE grade 1/2) and there was a single COVID‐19‐related death. These data suggest SARS‐CoV‐2 infection does not confer substantial morbidity among young patients with B‐lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (B‐ALL/LLy).